Automation for Mid-Market: Where to Start?

We talk half our prospects out of automation.

Yes, you read that right. A company that makes its living from automation regularly says: "Don't do it." Not because we don't want the work. Because honest advice builds better relationships than a project that ends up collecting dust after six months.

What we wouldn't automate

Before we talk about where automation makes sense, let's talk about the opposite. This is where most companies burn their money.

Processes nobody can explain

"Oh, that's just how Sarah does it." We hear this in every other first meeting. And it's a red flag.

If you can't describe a process in clear steps, you can't automate it. Period. What happens if you try anyway? You automate the chaos. The result is a system that does the wrong things faster.

Our advice: Before you think about automation, map out the process. Every step. Every exception. Every "it depends" moment. Only when that's on paper can we have a real conversation.

Anything that requires a human touch

One client had an idea: automate responses to customer complaints. Sounds efficient. And it is - until the AI sends a boilerplate reply to a frustrated long-term customer and they switch to a competitor.

Sensitive communication, complex negotiations, individual customer care - technology can support these. Preparing, summarizing, suggesting. But the decision and the tone? That has to be a human.

The CEO's prestige project

"Our competitors are using AI now." That sentence is the most expensive one in business today. When the motivation for an automation project isn't "We have a specific problem" but "Everyone else is doing it," it gets expensive. And useless.

We've turned down projects where the budget was approved, the team was ready - but there was no actual problem to solve. No real problem means no real solution.

The uncomfortable truth about ROI

Let's talk about money. Honestly.

Most ROI calculations for automation are sugarcoated. Not deliberately - but they forget half the picture. Implementation is just the beginning. Then comes maintenance, updates, training, adjustments when processes change, support when something breaks.

An honest calculation looks like this: Take your estimated implementation costs and multiply by 1.5 for the first year. For every following year, budget 20 to 30 percent of implementation costs for operations and ongoing development.

Sounds sobering? Maybe. But it's the truth. And with these real numbers, the right projects still pay off significantly. We do honest math with our clients - even when that means a project doesn't happen. Because a client we were once honest with comes back. One we sold something that didn't work doesn't.

Where it actually pays off

Now for the good news. Because after all those warnings, there are areas where automation doesn't just make sense - it makes real money. Reliably. Measurably.

The copy-paste test

Watch your employees for a day. If someone regularly copies data from System A and pastes it into System B - congratulations, you've struck gold.

Data transfer between systems is the classic case. ERP to CRM, spreadsheets to accounting, email attachments to document management. These tasks are repetitive, error-prone, and cost real working hours.

Reality check: A system integration typically saves 5 to 15 hours per week. At an internal hourly rate of 50 euros, that's 1,000 to 3,000 euros monthly. Most integrations pay for themselves in three to six months.

The Monday morning ritual

Sound familiar? Every Monday someone spends two hours assembling a report. Numbers from three systems, nicely formatted, emailed to ten people.

Reports, dashboards, status updates - if the data sources are digital, this can be fully automated. Not in months. In days.

Reality check: Automated reports don't just save time. They're more current, more consistent, and available when you need them - not just Monday at eleven.

The "Sorry, I missed that" cases

Where humans do repetitive tasks, mistakes happen. That's not a flaw, it's biology. The invoice with the wrong tax rate. The order that fell through the cracks. The customer waiting three days for a reply because the email got buried.

Every single one of these mistakes costs money. Not just directly, but through rework, customer dissatisfaction, and missed deadlines.

Reality check: Automatic checks and reminders reduce these errors by 80 to 95 percent. And they cost a fraction of what a single major mistake costs.

How to actually get started

Forget 10-step plans and maturity models. Do one thing instead.

Talk to the person with the most tedious job in your company. Not management. Not IT. The person who does the same thing every day and quietly dies inside.

Shadow them for a day. Count the clicks, the system switches, the manual transfers. Do the honest math: What does this cost per month? What would a solution cost?

If the numbers work, start small. One process. Four weeks to a first result. Then measure. Then decide whether to continue.

No master plan. No five-year program. One problem, one solution, one result.

Not sure if automation is right for you?

Then ask us. We mean it.

We offer a free initial consultation where we look at your processes and honestly tell you where automation makes sense - and where it doesn't. No sales pitch. If we advise against it, you still get a clear recommendation for what to do instead.

Because in the end, it's not about automating as much as possible. It's about automating the right things.

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Want to know if automation makes sense for your processes? Schedule a free consultation - we'll tell you even if the answer is no.